Tutorial: Making a FanFiction Step-by-Step
So I'm going to be doing something a little different. If you don't know who I am, I'm an admin here. I've tried tutorial series in the past but it gets boring writing down things I already know, so to make this interesting, instead of trying to explain everything to you guys, I'm going to be writing an entire Bleach FanFiction from scratch to show you a good idea of plot, characters, etc. Now my motives for thsi tutorial are honestly not just helping new guys get good at writing, it's to help some of the users that maybe have been here for a while as well. So here is how this will work. I have to start from scratch; I can't use any previous character of mine, and this will be a storyline in which no fanfiction (from this site or otherwise) exists. All I get to start with is the setting and general nature of the Bleach universe. I need to explain why I make certain decisions, describe my thought process, and make sure it can be understood. I will explain important ideas of story drafting, but they will be fairly brief so you might need clarification. And on that note, leave messages on this articles talk-page if you need clarification, want to give opinions, etc. On a similar note, I'm writing this in something of a journal format. I'll leave sections (or parts of sections depending) with a signature at the bottom after I finish so you know I've taken a break or what not. This will also make sure I can get info out as fast as possible. And it will be something for me to do so I don't get bored (which is a fairly easy thing to do). So that's my intro, hopefully you enjoy what is to come. --Takeshi (Talk here) 00:42, June 26, 2011 (UTC) Entry 1 I've got a story to write, oh joy. Well, I suppose I'll start with a subject and theme. Important Fact: A subject is generally a single word that your story is based around, and expanding on that, a theme is a full sentence/phrase that generally explains the question of 'What about subject here?' To explain I'll list a few subjects. *Love *Hate *Courage *Wisdom *Power *Home Now, these are some of the more common subjects and I'm sure you've heard of them before (hopefully). Now to get a theme out of your subject you answer the question I gave above. For this I'll pick courage. So then I ask, "What about courage?" A theme is generally a life lesson of sorts so often the answer is based on the authors own views of the world (though that's not to say they have to). One answer for the question is, "Courage helps us conquer fear." That's a pretty basic one, but hey, I need this to be brief. Do note though that more complex stories can have more themes (not that they need to). Now why would I start here? Because it is the general, central focus of the story; to explain the theme. The quote on my user page is a good one. Lee Unkrich (he worked on Toy Story 2 and 3 I believe) once said, "The hardest part about finding a story is like trying to climb a mountain blindfolded." The reality of this is not the fact that you are on the mountain blindfolded. Sure, you can't see and don't know where the rocks are, but if you go slowly, you'll make it. It's the fact that you have to find the mountain first that is the real reality. So back to this currently basically nonexistant story... I think I'm going to write a story focusing on the failings of one of the seven deadly sins. For those who don't know, these are basically flaws that often can lead a person to their doom if they go too far down one of the paths. They are: *Envy - Desire of things others possess. *Gluttony - Desire for more. *Greed - Desire for things. *Lust - Desire for pleasure. *Pride - Desire for attention. *Sloth - Desire for rest. *Wrath - Desire for harm. Hmm... actually, I think I'm going to use all of them, and base this whole thing as something of an allegory of the hero triumphing over them all. Important Fact: Ugh, another one. For those who don't know, an allegory is a story that uses a lot of symbolism (which are basically things that hold deeper meanings than what they appear at face value). The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind is a story I read in a school textbook once. These two cities were constantly changing their wall's shape to try and one-up each other symbolically. One city would be a fire, the other would be a lake. No actual fighting occurs but in reality both cities suffer as they constantly are changing the walls and never being able to attend to other matters. It may not occur to some people, but this story was published during the Cold War, which was a nuclear arms race between the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union. No one actually fought in this war, but the two nations were constantly trying to one-up each other through the strength of their nuclear arsenal, and people suffered as they lived in constant fear of a nuclear strike. See what the author did there? I won't give the ending away, but it was basically the author's hopes how the war would turn out. Okay, now that the fact is over I need to pick out themes for each, and then next time I can work out how they'll fit in as I work on the actual plot. When I think of envy, I think of a person seeing another person's stuff and wanting it so bad they go to ends to either steal it, or ruin it for them, so I think the theme for envy will be, "Envy can lead us to thinking so negatively that we fail to see the things that we have simply because of the one thing that someone has that we don't." Gluttony, the desire for more... "Gluttony can absorb us to the point of addiction and/or obsession, and so in the end we find ourselves unable to get what we want without hurting those around us. Greed I think, is pretty straight forward and similar to gluttony, so I think I'll combine the two. Lust, the desire for pleasure... if you guys haven't figured it out they do mean sexual pleasure. Hm, I'm going to need to think on this one, so we'll come back to it when we get to characters. Pride is often considered one of the most deadly of these sins. In fact, biblically speaking this is sin that corrupted Satan. I've gone over this theme before in earlier works but whatever. "Pride can blind us and turn us into cruel beings if we are consumed by it." Sloth... this more often a flaw of the heroes and not the villains, because it basically is laziness. A lazy villain isn't as threatening as a fully dedicated one (generally of course). Hm... maybe I'll invert the stereotype... we'll see. "Sloth can lead to neglect, which in the end can ruin lives, friendships, dreams, etc." And finally Wrath, which is the desire for harm. This is rage taken up to eleven generally... "When wrath consumes us we sometimes will destroy things indiscriminately... even when those things are the things we care most about." I'll come up with more as I make characters... maybe. --Takeshi (Talk here) 01:53, June 26, 2011 (UTC) Entry 2 Alright, I'm back after being struck with a serious lack of motivation yesterday... Hopefully that isn't a problem today, but if it is, this might be shorter than usual. The thing about projects is knowing how to balance having patience, and getting a move on. You can't rush a project and get unsatisfying results, but similarily, you can't just wait for ideas to come to you. Your mind just wanders and eventually you just keep pushing it further and further back until you no longer have any plans to start at all. It's just a matter of knowing when to do what and not making bad decisions in that regard. Well, we have a theme, and the settings are given to us because this is a fanfiction. That isn't to say I couldn't make a new world, but it's generally best to first ground your story in the canon setting so people get a sense that it's still part of the Bleach universe and not some wierd thing with a different world but similar mechanics that Bleach has. Important Fact: Hopefully you guys know what this is. The setting where your story takes place. It encompasses the world, what mechanics work within it (in this case spiritual powers, Zanpakuto, etc.), and the time. A setting can be a compelling part of the narrative or it can just be the place where it takes place. It all depends on your wishes as a writer; both can work. We need characters and a plot then... Important Fact: These should all be known, but whatever. A character is an entity that interacts with the setting and/or other characters to create the plot. With a sentient character, you generally will need a personality, background, appearance, and perhaps some skills and abilities. I'll go over this in detail when I get to it. Important Fact: Plot... please tell me you at least have an idea of what this is. This is what happens in your story. Conflict is a must when you're writing one. To sum it up, a story in reality is basically almost always: A character wants something... and is having trouble getting it. It may seem to simple an explanation but think about it. Since this is Bleach Fanfiction let's use the Bleach canon as an example. In the arc where Ichigo is trying to rescue Rukia, Ichigo wants to rescue Rukia... and is having trouble doing so because of the Gotei 13. Make sense? From here I could either work on the characters first, or come up with a plot. Either road leads to the same thing in reality, it just takes different paths to get there. The problem here though, is that right now I feel terrible and am suffering from writer's block. Looks like this was just informational and I didn't make any headway... oh well. Next entry will come when possible. --Takeshi (Talk here) 19:28, June 28, 2011 (UTC) Entry 3 These are taking longer than I'd like. I just don't have the time to ever work on them. I'll be on vacation next week so I'm not sure how it will effect the amount of time I have on here but don't be surprised if I haven't added anything by the end of next week. Moving on, we need to make characters... but we have another more pressing issue. My vision of this entire turotial series is changing again. It's evolving into a similar concept with a better sense of organization. I'll make seperate articles for everything so I can direct you guys to areas you want to focus on. That's how ideas work. You start them and slowly they change over time. Sometimes radically, sometimes in less noticeable ways. It's a rare occurance indeed when your first concepts do not require editing to really shine. So this might be my last post on this tutorial... another failure it seems, but hopefully I'll get it right next time. Be on the lookout for a new series to pop up from me... maybe its link will be the actual last post of this guide. --Takeshi (Talk here) 04:40, July 2, 2011 (UTC)